Few shows have seen as dramatic a shift in audience interest as “House of Cards.” Its myriad of recent problems both onscreen and off has turned what was once Netflix’s crown jewel into something of a laughingstock.
The first season of the Kevin Spacey-driven political drama took the world by storm. It was an indicator that Netflix was a legitimate competitor to more traditional television formats, capable of producing well-written, original content.
This level of hype continued for several seasons, but gradually started to peter out as viewers criticized repetitive storylines and nonsensical plot twists.
But by far the most dramatic blow came in November 2017, when Spacey was accused of sexual harassment and assault by Harry Dreyfuss, actor Richard Dreyfuss’ son.
For ethical reasons, there was no possible way the lead actor could be asked to return for Season 6, which was already planned to be the final season. Protagonist Frank Underwood was hastily written out, with Robin Wright’s character Claire taking center stage instead.
No one would argue that Netflix made the wrong decision by firing such a dangerous and unstable individual, but it is also very difficult to argue that Spacey didn’t carry the show on his shoulders. Even when the writing was poor, he could always be counted on to deliver a captivating and delightfully hammy performance.
Judging by the quality of the first few episodes of Season 6, it would have been a far more dignified decision to simply cancel the show without a real conclusion. While it is understandable that Netflix would not want the entire creative team to unfairly lose their jobs, the blatantly rushed nature of this season is borderline painful to watch.
The plot of the season involves Claire Underwood having recently gained the presidency and attempting to hold onto her power following the off-screen loss of her scheming husband.
This season seems unable to decide how to handle the abrupt loss of its main star. On one hand, dialogue from numerous characters seems desperate to send a message to fans — that this has never just been Frank’s story, and Claire is just as important to the narrative, if not more so.
But at the same time, his absence is mentioned so frequently that it becomes impossible to ignore how much of a gaping hole he left behind. The writers want to render Frank Underwood irrelevant but do not have the courage to fully go through with this.
The writing overall is meandering and sloppy, clearly suffering from the extensive rewrites that the season went through. Snappy dialogue, unpredictable power plays and interesting characters were hallmarks of the early seasons. All of those elements are completely absent by this point. It is a show on life support, plain and simple.
Claire’s character has always suffered from inconsistent writing, despite an excellent performance from Wright. The most interesting aspects of her story arc have always revolved around the warped dynamic she had with her husband.
When one half of a duo that the entire show was centered around is removed from the equation, there is simply no way to recover from it. It doesn’t help that in addition to Frank, almost the entirety of the supporting cast has been written out through murders, firings and other means by this point.
Several new characters were brought in in an attempt to make up for this, but it is laughable of the show to presume that anyone will get invested in these walking plot devices, especially since the show is in its final season.
There’s no sense of urgency, no feeling that the titular house of cards is finally collapsing as was promised from the beginning of the show. It is a sad attempt by Netflix to squeeze a few more dollars out of the corpse of what was once its greatest success story.
Everyone should sympathize with the terrible situation the creators were put in by Spacey. The true ending of “House of Cards” will now be one of TV’s greatest “What if?” stories. But one wishes that perhaps the show should have either been cancelled or delayed indefinitely until everyone involved was able to put in as much effort as possible.
It is tragic to see a show with so much potential completely crumble in its home stretch, all due to the actions of one man.
